


Excerpts from Erato

by dogtier



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Illustrated, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 14:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogtier/pseuds/dogtier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eight girls trying to find their way through the barriers between their species.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Excerpts from Erato

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tortoisegirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tortoisegirl/gifts).



Kanaya's skin did not glow the same all the time. Even without her consciously turning the luminescence on and off it ebbed and flowed, reminding Rose of a firefly. A tall, slender firefly.

"You have the prettiest smile," Rose said, lifting her hand and utterly missing in her attempt to stroke Kanaya's cheek. Kanaya turned her face, catching two of Rose's fingers between her incisors and nipping. Rose giggled, pulling her fingers back to her own mouth and licking up the welling pearl of blood. Kanaya let out a deep, trilling growl in the back of her throat as she swooped down, pushing their lips together and chasing the bitter taste of iron. Their kisses were always quick. Their mouths weren't made to fit together elegantly. Instead, they found other ways to express themselves. Hands intertwining, Rose's soft lips over Kanaya's knuckles, that was Kanaya's favorite way. Rose preferred to run her hands up Kanaya's sides, feeling the strange bumps of her grub leg scars through the cloth while she pressed to the hollow between Kanaya's neck and shoulder. 

It took a great deal of time for Rose to work up the nerve to ask to touch elsewhere. They sat on the couch in Rose's dim room, elegant little lamps casting them in high contrast. Rose reached out, carefully, always carefully, and laid her hand on Kanaya's abdomen. Even through the dark cloth she could feel the difference between the skin of the scar and the rest of her body. 

"May I?" Rose asked. Kanaya looked tense, but she nodded. Rose still hesitated and Kanaya ended up reached done and pulling her shirt up herself. Rose inhaled, softly but sharply, at what she saw. The skin of the scar was not thicker like one would expect but thin, transparent with long stretch marks, as it it had trouble holding in all Kanaya's organs. Kanaya gripped Rose's hands, guiding her to touch. Through it she could feel Kanaya's body working, the strange slow pumping of her cold jade blood. 

"It doesn't hurt," Kanaya said. Rose nodded, tracing her fingertips over the edge of the scar, feeling the ragged raised skin that connected the thin tissue to the rest of Kanaya's much thicker hide. As Rose rubbed the skin below her fingers began to glow brighter. Rose glanced up, looking for Kanaya's nod, before she leaned in and placed a kiss on the ragged edge of the scar. She pressed her lips again and again on the skin, working her way all around the ring and listening to Kanaya sigh softly. 

When she pulled away Kanaya was smiling.

"Is your curiosity satisfied?" Kanaya asked. 

"For now," Rose said. "A scientist's job is never done." 

"Of course," Kanaya agreed. 

When Jade had been a little girl Prospit had seemed to big. Compared to her little island there were a million things to see, people to talk to, buildings to fly around! It was amazing. The Queen had given her freedom to explore as long as she stayed out of trouble. Jade wasn't too good at the staying out of trouble and many times ended up in the palace, blushing adn looking at her feet while getting a kind lecture from the Queen. 

Jade had once thought that if she had a mother it would be like the Queen. She was always too embarrassed to say it though, admit that she wasn't happy with Bec, but she thought the Queen knew anyway. She would sit on a sofa in her parlor and let Jade lean against her. Jade loved the touch of the Queen's porcelain fingers in her hair. It was completely unlike her memories of her grandfather. Her grandfather had been soft and warm, smelling like bitter smoke all the time. The Queen's side was as stiff as armor.

PM was different. She was taller than even the queen, towering over Jade when standing before the girl. Jade stared up, eyes wide, staring at the elegant white fur adorning PM's chest and face. She wondered if PM's ears were as soft as her own, as soft as Bec's had been. She wanted to reach out and touch PM's wings, feel if they were as downy and warm as Davesprite's. Mostly she wanted PM to look her right in the eye and see if there was some sort of recognition there. Before Jade could work up the nerve to ask PM knelt, taking Jade's hand and kissing the back of it, like a knight before a princess. Then she _licked_.

"Hey!" Jade said.

"Sorry," PM said bashfully. "I can't help it."

"It's okay," Jade said, giving in to the urge to scratch PM's ears and see the carapacian smile in return. 

They sat next to each other in the grass. PM held out her hand and allowed Jade to slip off the ring. Without it PM's fur faded away, wings flickering green before dissolving into air. Jade was sure that once PM's shell had been glossy white, shiny and smooth. Now it was dented slightly, the sheen rubbed away from the endless fight against the elements. Sand could wipe away civilizations if you gave it long enough. Jade thought it was lovely, taking PM's hand in hers and turning it over to examine the little armor like joints that made her body work. 

"You're very pretty," PM said. "I think that even without the ring."

"Thank you," Jade said. 

Jade had to lean up, even with them sitting, to lay a kiss on the hard surface of PM's cheek. PM ducked down, hand careful on Jade's cheek to avoid pinching Jade's long hair in the hinges of her knuckles, and allowed Jade to kiss her more squarely on the mouth. It wasn't really a thing carapaces did but the smile when Jade pulled away was worth it. 

"Come on!" Jade said, suddenly leaping to her feet. "Kissing can come later, I have so much to show you!" 

Meenah laid back on the dock, propping her feet up in Jane's lap. Jane ran her fingers up Meenah's legs, feeling her grey skin. In one direction it was smooth and slick, but if she pushed her fingers against the grain it was rough like sandpaper. It made Jane think of the time her father had taken her to the aquarium and she had touched a tiny shark. Meenah's eyes were closed, both sets of eyelids folded over her fuchsia eyes. Her eyelashes were painted bright pink and the sun glinted off the piercings all over Meenah's face. Meenah was long and trim, made of solid muscle, quite a contrast next to short, chubby Jane. 

Jane was fascinated by Meenah's feet, how they were long and webbed, how her ankles folded back like a bird's. There was probably a scientific name for it, but science had never been her thing. Except for detective forensics, and to be honest she wasn't super keen at those either. 

"Watcha thinking about?" Meenah asked. 

"Just enjoying the day," Jane told her. 

"Want to enjoy it more?" Meenah asked. Jane blushed, Meenah always wriggled her fins like that when she wanted to make out. 

"Sure," Jane said. Meenah smiled, horrifying row after row of teeth showing, and then she pushed Jane into the water.

"Come on!" Meenah said, swimming in circles around Jane as Jane flailed. "It's fun!"

"Not when it's a surprise!" Jane said, finally getting her legs paddling under her well enough to stay afloat. 

"You're such a guppy," Meenah said, but she lifted Jane effortlessly back onto the dock anyway, letting Jane just dangle her legs in the water while Meenah showed off for her.

"Yes, yes," Jane said tolerantly. "I did see how big a splash you made."

Meenah emerged from the water, tossing her head back and laughing as she swam up to the dock. She rested her arms on the wood and looked up at Jane. 

"Your braids must be a lot of trouble," Jane said.

"Nah," Meenah answered. "I just get Aranea to do them. The hardest part is listening to her ramble on while she does it. At least she forks over some boonbucks afterwards." 

Jane pushed a few loose strands of hair off Meenah’s neck. Her finger brushed over one of Meenah’s gill flaps and it flared to life, little frills of fuchsia darting out from under the grey skin. Jane squeaked in surprise. Meenah laughed a repeated the action as Jane pouted. 

“Hey there landlubber,” Meenah said. “Like what you see?” 

“Shut up,” Jane said. “Wait, no. I mean _clam it_.”

Meenah laughed again, pulling herself up and flopping back on the pier. She tugged Jane's arm. 

“Don’t be like that,” Meenah said. “Come on, you can touch them.”

Jane touched more firmly this time, pressing down on the outer skin of the gill as it fluttered with Meenah's deep breaths. 

“I’ve been thinking about getting them pierced," Meenah said. 

“Wouldn’t that _hurt?”_

“Sometimes you gotta suffer for radness.”

“I like your eyebrow piercing,” Jane said. She traced her fingers over the gold rings. 

“Thanks!” Meenah said. “We should get you some.”

“I’m not sure they’re my style,” Jane said. 

“We can make it your style,” Meenah said. 

She reached out and tugged Jane down by her wet shirt. Meenah's mouth was salty and her teeth were very sharp. Jane was almost afraid to kiss any deeper than timid little presses of lips to lips. Meenah seemed content to wait, though, allowing Jane to sit back again. 

"I'll make a seadweller of you yet," she told Jane.

Roxy rubbed the back of Calliope broad, broad shoulders. Cherub skin was rough and thick and Roxy had to push down hard to make Calliope feel it, working her hands in kneading motions while she mapped the unfamiliar arrangement of muscles and ligaments. She worked her thumbs over and around Calliope's protruding shoulder blade.

"That's nice," Calliope said. 

"Good," Roxy whispered, snuggling close and kissing down the ridged vertebra on the back of Calliope's neck. Calliope wriggled a bit, laughing at the sensation. She reached behind her, catching Roxy's hand and pulling the unresisting girl around and into her lap. Roxy sprawled on her back across Calliope's folded legs, feeling tiny but quite safe between their bulk. 

"Comfy?" Calliope asked, petting Roxy's hair very gently with her giant fingers. Roxy smiled and stretched, arms above her head and wriggling to unknot every bit of her from head to toe before slumping back again. 

"I am now," Roxy said, turning her head and kissing the heel of Calliope's palm. It took both her hands to hold one of Calliope's. The size differences scared Calliope more than Roxy. It seemed that Roxy was nearly fearless in everything, always being the one to push their exploration of each other's bodies a bit further. Calliope enjoyed each step of the process, even though she still blushed and stammered in nervousness each time Roxy asked for a kiss. Instead Roxy had begun working up to it. She would kiss Calliope's hands, working her way up the fingers to the wrist, wriggling around to her knees in Calliope's lap so she could begin to trail her smooches up Calliope's arms in a direct trajectory for Calliope's face. 

"Hello there," Calliope said as Roxy bumped their foreheads together, trying to get a solid smack on Calliope's mouth. Calliope was making her work for it, tilting her head back and forth so Roxy kept hitting her cheek or the bridge of her eyebrow instead.

Roxy sat back in frustration. Calliope rubbed Roxy's cheek with her thumb until Roxy smiled, then finally bent forward to kiss her. 

"You can't resist me," Roxy said. "I knew it."


End file.
